Discipleship Series Interactive Worship – Letting Go (Sacrificing)
Preparation
Food items and their prices and a £5 note. Pipe cleaners
Bible Passage Luke 14:25-35
Introduction Bring along several food items such as tinned food, sweet and savoury snacks, as well as nutritious food. Ask for a volunteer to ‘spend’ £5 to ensure they can eat for a number of days. What would they like to buy? What do they need to choose? What will they have to ‘leave out’? We have to measure the cost. Jesus challenged his disciples to do the same.
Thought A large crowd was following Jesus (Luke 14:25-35). You can picture it, hundreds of men, women and children all following the man who had the power to heal and who spoke with amazing authority about the kingdom that God was going to establish on earth. What do you think they would have been feeling? Hope, excitement, wonder? (Ask the congregation to discuss.) The large crowd followed Jesus, perhaps some for a day out, bringing friends and family along to see this new Rabbi. They were filled with excitement to see this celebrity from Galilee. Then he turns to speak to them and everything changes. He tells them clearly that this is not free entertainment, or a nice thing to do with some spare time. He sets out the cost of following – and it is at a high price. ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, even their own life – such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple’ (Luke 14:26–27 NIV). Suddenly the entertaining trip out had a cost. Now Jesus was not saying that you shouldn’t speak to your family again if you follow him, although that may be quite appealing to some! He was saying that to follow him means
that he has to be the priority and all other relationships are secondary to his calling on our lives. Early missionaries who believed that Jesus was leading them to travel to distant lands to take the message often used to take their coffins with them because they knew that they might never return home. It can be hard for us to understand that calling to sacrifice, yet still today Christians are called to sacrifice everything for the sake of Christ. We know that when Jesus said this to the crowd, he already knew of the sacrifice he would have to make. He would give up his own life, and we see on the Mount of Olives how painful it was when he knelt down and prayed: ‘Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done’… ‘and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground’ (Luke 22:40–44 NIV). I wonder how many people, from the hundreds that followed, still carried on. We are all called to sacrificial living, to pick up our cross and follow. If you do not know what your cross is perhaps you are not carrying it.
Participation Ask the congregation to share amongst each other. What do I need to give up in order to follow Jesus? How do I make this happen? Do I need to ask for help?
Worship
SB 371 SB 176 SB 419 SB 724
I will offer up my life Jesus Christ, I think upon your sacrifice Father of love Make me a captive, Lord
Response 
Use pipe cleaners to form crosses. Leave them at the mercy seat. Invite people to pray, and take up their cross.
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Responsive prayer Dear Jesus you have called us to follow you, it is our choice. May we gladly follow you in love. You have called us to follow you, and you alone. May we be loyal in our following. You have called us to follow you and to sacrificial living. May we be faithful in our following. Amen.